Omaha daily bee., 1887-11-09
IMPOSING UPON THE PEOPLE.
The Tale Of the Ravages Of the B. &
M. on Citizens Of Dundy County.
EXCESSIVE RATES OF FREIGHT.
Property Destroyed by Sparks from
Engines-A Startling Story of
Railroad Villiany-An I'M
feeling Ohcial.

IeellnS oiuCIui.
BENKLEMAN, Neb., Nov. 5.-[Special
Correspondence of the BEE. l-Dundy
county, among the last in this state to
be organized and settled, is rapidly be-
ing filed with sturdy pioneers, the
class of men to whom the settlement Of
this continent is due.
But these men have even more TO con-
tend with than the first settler OF the
olden states. While it was the lot Of
| those persons, who felled the trees and
hewod through dense farests in
| the far east, to encounter the savage
| on his native heath-and fight for his
| life and perhaps the liberty of himself
| and family,and experienced all the hard
ships that civilization dispenses with;
vet it was not for him to read the grim
and re-assuring proposition that all men
were to enjoy life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness-at least within the
combines of civilization-and yet be
robbed blind by the all-destroyi ng
| wreckcrs, the railroad corporations.
The man who looks over this newly
settled territory and gives the stamp of
approval to the wrongs and ravages
perpetaated by the B. g. M. railroad
company, would rob the blind to fore
close mortgage on a graveyard.
Never did ravaging pestilence leave
| in its wake such undoubted evidences
of total and complete destruction as
have been made by the 1S3 railroads 8
| long continued, excessive ana eNloft-
onate robbcrics.
| With freight rates placed at figure
so high that they at once imply rulna-
tion to the producer and consumer, the
hungry robbers are not satisfied. Levy
ing the last farthing that the distressed
homesteader can stand: placing a
freight rate on the necessities of life
that no man can long endure; their
fendish and savage desire for booty IS
not satiated but with wanton and
reckless complacency they burn the
crops of the husbandmen along their
line. And the people tamely submit to
all this. .
I am told by dozens Of good people of
this place that about two weeks ago the
b. 81 NJ. sent out freight train from
McCool drawn by a mogul engine which
emitted cinders that were balls OF lire,
strewing them over path covering
more than their right-of-way, leaving
|
hind-consuming hundreds of tons of
hay, the product of scores OF poor and
financially distressed men-their sum
mers toil-thcir winters need-their
surplus capital-their all!
1t is further told me by a dozen citi-
zens that the conductor of this freight
train saw the fatality of this
disastrous and cruel work OF
the fire throwing locomotive,
knew that everything the million sparks
that burned as tinder the needed crop
he was guilty of shocking and cruel
crime-the willful destruction of prop
erty scarce, valuable, necessary and
hard to secure. So with compunctiOn
of conscience, unknown to railroad
official at all advanced in the company S
service, sent dispatch to the division
!, superintendent informing him,as nearly
, as can get his message:
''My engine is setting fire to the whole
country"
And answer came:
$50 AHEAD!'
$50 ahead" when farmers were being
robbed of their summers wOrk-''gO
ahead when the paririe behind the
train for miles was burning and spread
! | ing and endangering even the life OF
l farmers-''go ahead" at all hazards, for
t d-n the homesteader anyway, he can't
. recover from us-we, the railway free
Y hooters who control this country.
: And they did '.go ahead" They did
s ego ahead" and burned for j. II. King
o over 80 tons of hay and the winter
) grass from off of 800 acres of ground.
!. ]. b. Gring lost fifty tons Of hay, and a
! large number of other farmers suffered
4 heavily.
And what? Then came the penny
= q pinching wrechers, the poverty-plead
a ING appraisers of the rich and rotten
o company-viewed the ashes yet smoul-
9 dering in heaps here and there, and at
tempted to effect settlement by paying
+ much less than the actual loss.
o And the people in their goodness o.
u u heart, in their respect for the law which
:. claims to offer protection to the wrongec
3 must submit tamely to all these damna
@ BILE outragcs of cursed and crime-cor
:. roded corporate wealth and power
s The citizens held a meeting-it was
; all they could do--a resolve and re-re
> solve.
!, Out here where the legalized high
- waymen ply their vocation alone an(
h uninterrupted. it costs to ship one cal
IL load of salt from Chicago $l5O-tw'
Y. I times and over what the salt is worth.
e On dry goods from Chicago it cost
~ over $l.5O per hundred pounds-an'
. from Omaha 50 cents per hundred
,e pounds.
Yet some people wonder why com
munists, anarchists, socialists and nlhi
lists find favor in this country an
y think strangely of a thoughtful ma,
v. who predicts that we are on the verg
TX OF revolution.
Of And yet we who cry aloud against tn
ravagcs of railroads are named crank
but happily observe that this coun
try is well filled with cranks who vii
rs soon demand, at least, common justice
AL FAIRBROTHER.
Railroad Building in Mexico.
,t correSnOndent from Mexico write